As anthology series tend to be, Love, Death + Robots has always been something of a mixed bag, and this continues into the newly released Volume 2. Of the eight sci-fi short films this season, two are great, four are varying levels of good and two are seriously disappointing. The lows aren't as low as the first season's, but there aren't quite as many highs, perhaps as a result of the shortened production time and smaller episode count.
Don't go in expecting anything as mind-blowing as Volume 1's "Zima Blue" or "Good Hunting," but animation and science-fiction fans with a taste for darker stories will still find plenty to enjoy in the latest batch of Love, Death + Robots. Here's how the new season's short films stack up, ranked from worst to best.
At 18 minutes long, "Snow in the Desert" is tied with "Pop Squad" for the longest episode of the season, but despite its length, it's the entry that feels the most underdeveloped. This episode has four credited directors and feels like a case of too many cooks. The Mad Max-esque mutant desert dystopia is visually interesting, but the episode just keeps throwing in new concepts without cohering into a compelling story. The big twist at the end not only comes out of nowhere, but it also carries no real emotional or thematic impact.
"Automated Customer Service" follows up Volume 1's "Three Robots," "The Day the Yogurt Took Over" and "Alternate Histories" as another comedic John Scalzi story. The jokes, involving a killer vacuum robot and an incredibly unhelpful customer service line, are funny, but where this episode falls short is in the animation. While the mechanical designs are fine and the dog is cute, the human designs are extremely ugly and unappealing. As such, this episode becomes a rare letdown in a series that almost always succeeds at eye candy.
How do you top Volume 1's experiments in photorealistic animation like "Lucky 13" and "Beyond the Aquila Rift?" "Life Hutch" answers the question by blending animation with live-action footage in a way where you can't tell whether you're looking at the real Michael B. Jordan or a motion capture facsimile thereof. As a special effects demo, it's amazing. The plot, adapted from a Harlan Ellison short story, is pretty standard killer robot fare, but it's presented with appropriate intensity and impactful gore.
You can consider the fifth and fourth rankings on this list to essentially be a tie. That "Ice" is ranked lower is more due to the weight of expectations than anything else. Director Robert Valley's episode from Volume 1, the existentialist robot drama "Zima Blue," is the most powerful story Love, Death + Robots has told thus far. His follow-up, about an unmodified human trying to keep up with his new superpowered friends, has the same stunning visual style (albeit adapted to 3D animation) as "Zima Blue," but the storytelling is on the vaguer, more confusing side.
"The Tall Grass" is an improvement over Volume 1's two Joe Lansdale adaptations, "The Dump" and "Fish Night." The story is a solid if standard piece of Lovecraftian horror about a man drawn towards mysterious monsters in a field. What makes this short successful is its directing and animation. Dreamworks Animation's Simon Otto goes for a unique style, playing with shading and framerates. The monsters are scary, and the big chase scene is made more exciting by how distinctive the creatures' behaviors are.
"The Drowned Giant," written and directed by series creator Tim Miller and based on the classic short story by J.G. Ballard, is the most reflective and philosophical episode of the season. There's no real action, and aside from the imagery of a gradually dismembered corpse and one great dick joke, it's one of the more restrained episodes in terms of NSFW content. Instead of going for shock, it's instead a meditative reflection on what happens when people gradually take a miraculous event for granted. The character animation is on the somewhat more stylized side, while the backgrounds are photorealistic.
Sometimes execution is everything. The concept of "All Through the House," the shortest episode of the season, is among the most obvious in all of Love, Death + Robots, without any real twist beyond the basic concept of "What if Santa Claus was a monster?" However, its seamless hybrid of stop-motion and CGI animation, great comedic timing and beautifully disgusting monster Santa make this short a sheer delight. This could be a new December staple for those who like their Christmas stories creepy.
The one episode directed by new series supervisor Jennifer Yuh Nelson is by far the most successful all-around story in Love, Death + Robots Volume 2. Based on a story by Paolo Bacigalupi, "Pop Squad" takes place in a city where people have traded their right to have kids for eternal life. The main character is a police officer assigned with the awful job of tracking down and killing illegal children. This is by far the most challenging, emotional and fully realized dystopian vision in all of Volume 2 and the only episode to approach the high points of Volume 1.
Love, Death + Robots Vol. 2 is now streaming on Netflix. Vol. 3 will be released in 2022.
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